


Don't Leave Without Me

by CarnivalofBrokenDolls (yourrhinestoneeyes)



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Ed saves Oswald's life, Ivy is a total life saver, M/M, Oswald worries about Ed, Violence, slight gore, typical Gotham violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 09:21:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11033292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourrhinestoneeyes/pseuds/CarnivalofBrokenDolls
Summary: Love is the idiotic thing that caused Oswald so much pain and trouble, it's the same emotion that caused Ed to make a stupid selfless decision to save the life of a man he used to claim he never loved.





	Don't Leave Without Me

Nathaniel Barnes was one of the last people that either Ed or Oswald wanted to encounter in the entirety of Gotham. They had heard some time ago that he had gotten infected with the Alice Tetch virus, he screamed through the streets swearing that it was a miracle of sorts. The outfit was new, the all black with leather straps and a large metal blade placed where a hand once was. The black makeup streaked across his eyes seemed to be a tad bit excessive if Oswald had his opinion asked, but nobody had asked for his opinion on the ex-police captain’s style choices.

Barnes certainly had not asked for an opinion, he had charged down the street and easily grabbed up the small black-haired man by the front of his shirt and lead him to the nearest building where he roughly slammed him up against a brick wall. The pain that jolted through Oswald’s spine was harsh enough to pull a loud shout from the mobster, he kicked his legs and grabbed at Barnes’ wrist. He dug his too short nails into the leather wrapped around his wrist as he continued to struggle. There was something painstakingly terrifying to it when the older man smiled at him, nothing about him was right, a sick mania overtaking his stern features as he looked at his writhing prey.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time Cobblepot.” 

Oswald released his grip on the bastard’s wrist, he let his arms drop to his sides.

“What, do you think you’re the first filthy bastard in this city to attempt to kill me?” He scoffed in hopes of distracting the man as he slipped his right hand into the pocket of his black slacks.

“I worked my ass off to try and protect this city, to clean it of corruption and then you and your cop killing lap dog had to come and put yourselves in office.”

Oswald smirked, “Well what can I say, the city got sick of waiting for Neanderthal cops to fix things around here.”

Barnes released his grip on his shirt letting Oswald drop, he felt relieved for just a millisecond until that death grip was on his throat pinning him back against the wall. He choked and struggled which only seemed to make Barnes dig his fingers harder against his tender flesh. Oswald could feel the handle of the knife, he wrapped his fingers around it and slowly pulled it from his pocket.

His body tensed when Barnes’s eyes locked on the blade right as Oswald drew it from his pocket. He pressed the blade where a hand once was against the smaller man’s exposed wrist allowing it to cut just barely into his flesh.

“Drop it or I cut your hand off, not that it matters, because in a second I’ll be painting the buildings with your filthy blood.”

Oswald closed his eyes as he released the knife, he listened as it clattered against the pavement. This was not how he had planned on dying; he had expected Ed to kill him or even Fish, but to have this infected ape disembowel him was not something he had foreseen.

From somewhere behind Barnes a gun went off, the bullet piercing the brick wall just inches away from Oswald’s head. His eyes went wide as he looked over the larger man’s shoulder to see who in the Hell had nearly hit him. Barnes as well turned his head to see who dare interrupt what would be considered his biggest accomplishment in cleaning up Gotham of scum.

Ed stood just a few feet away, he aimed the gun levelling it at Barnes. There was a sly smile playing on his full lips and that crazed over confident gleam in his big brown eyes. Oswald wasn’t sure if he was happy to see him or utterly infuriated that Ed was pulling a move this idiotic.

“Nygma” Barnes growled out, he dropped Oswald to the ground and advanced on the other man.

Ed took a step back and gave a short bow as the larger man approached him. 

“Well it looks like you’ve been through quite a few changes since the last time we got to have some quality time.” Ed commented as he looked over the man’s appearance.

He easily avoided it when Barnes swung his arm at him in an attempt to cut him. Ed aimed the gun at his head right between his eyes.

“I’ve killed you a dozen times in my head, you’re nothing but a low-down cop killer.”

Ed rolled his eyes, “Oh please are you still on that old tirade? I’ve stepped up from cop killing since the last time that we met. I think killing a victim of the Tetch virus might be quite the experience.”

Before he could pull the trigger, Barnes had tackled him, he shoved his forearm against Ed’s stomach knocking the air out of the thin man and knocking him back onto the ground. The blade flashed in the air before being brought down only stopping when Ed shot his gun at him piercing a hole through his attacker’s arm. Ed rolled to the right, he was quick to get to his feet and away from the man who was once more swinging at him like a havoc raining pendulum. 

The growls and yells that emitted from Barnes as he continued to swing and slash at the younger man were close to inhuman.

“Nygma, your death will be slow and torturous.”

Ed fired off another shot, this one hitting the older man in his left shoulder.

“My name is the Riddler, God how difficult is it to get you people to understand that?” He yelled shooting again and again, more shots hitting his approaching attacker’s shoulder.

Ed pulled the trigger again, this time only an empty click sounded. Ed’s eyes widened, he looked down at his gun giving it a shake and nervously hitting it against the palm of his hand.

“Come on, come on….No I can’t be out of bullets.” He muttered to himself as he backed away slowly.

Barnes laughed, a sound that even before he’d been infected would be rather unsettling.

Ed looked up just in time to see the blade swing in from the side, it planted itself right into his side. The pain was unreal, even the times his father had bashed his face against the living room wall or put cigarettes out on his back hadn’t hurt as horribly as this. He looked down at himself; the blade was imbedded in his flesh, his shiny green suit and white dress shirt torn and quickly turning a nearly black shade of red. His body shook with the pain that was coursing through him, he moved his mouth as if to speak, but found himself unable to say anything at all. His vision blurred and if it weren’t for Barnes’s blade hand buried in his side holding him up he felt he would have already hit the ground. 

A gun went off and Barnes stilled, the smile fading from his face and a look of confusion taking over his hardened features. Ed saw blood quickly rolling down his face from the hole that was between his eyes. The man fell forward landing on Ed and knocking him back onto the ground. Ed screamed from the pain and the now dead weight laying on top of him. 

He closed his eyes tightly and grit his teeth silently begging for the pain to end.

Oswald was quick to try and roll Barnes corpse off Ed, admittedly it took a lot of struggling and work, but he managed to roll the bullish man onto the pavement. Ed’s eyes were closed tightly, his chest rose and fell with heavy labored breaths. Oswald had an idea of how bad the pain was, he could see the deep gash cut into his side, but he couldn’t see just how deep it was. That worried him.

He carefully lowered himself to his knees just barely keeping in mind to be mindful of his injured leg and the pain the pavement caused his already sore joints. Oswald shrugged off his suit jacket and pressed it against the still bleeding wound, he firmly pressed wanting desperately to slow or stop the bleeding. He could feel the wet heat as Ed’s blood soaked through his jacket and onto his hands.

“Ed, Edward wake up.” Oswald smacked him across the face.

Ed opened his eyes, he could just make out the figure kneeling at his side. He looked down at the jacket pressed against his wound then back up at Oswald.

“You’re ruining your jacket.” He mumbled, he placed a shaky hand over Oswald’s in a weak attempt to shove him away.

“I don’t care about the damn jacket, I own a million of them. What on Earth did you think you were doing, do you know how idiotic that was to try and take him on by yourself?”

Ed let out a weak laugh that turned to hard painful coughing.

“Love makes us do crazy things, you know that.” He gave Oswald a smile, that sort of sly smile that always made him want to choke his old friend to death.

He felt the tears burning his eyes and making his vision blur, Oswald did his best to blink them away. Ed reached out a hand to touch him, Oswald took hold of his wrist bringing his friend’s hand up to his face nuzzling his cheek against his palm.

“I hate you Edward Nygma, you stupid bastard. I swear to God if you go and die on me I will never forgive you.”

Ed smiled at him, the look in his eyes was akin to something that Oswald had always wanted to see. Oswald pressed his lips to the palm of his hand in a gentle kiss.

“I promise you I won’t die, I’d hate to see how you would get along without me.”

Oswald brushed his fingers back through Ed’s now messed hair, he forced himself to smile even if it was just for the faintest of moments. He leaned down pressing a kiss to Ed’s lips, just a gentle sweet little something that he had spent weeks fantasizing about and in those days where he had been blissfully unconscious he had dreamed of having Ed in his arms. 

When Ivy had found the two of them she had found Oswald kneeling on the ground with Ed’s head resting on his lap. Oswald was quietly crying as he combed his fingers through the younger man’s hair, Ed was holding onto his free hand, their fingers laced together. She hadn’t felt much concern until she had seen all the blood, when Oswald had seen her he begged her to help them, to do something to save Ed. It had taken some work and a lot of careful movements to get Ed into Oswald’s car, to get back to the manor through the apocalyptic chaos still flooding the streets of downtown Gotham.

Oswald had sat watching and waiting impatiently as he watched Ivy work to save Ed’s life. The wound had been frightful, something nearing on fatal. Thankfully Ivy was always becoming more powerful in her abilities and her knowledge of plants, from time to time she would reassure her dear friend that Ed was going to be fine. After all she had saved Oswald’s life and had brought Selina back from the very brink of death, she was certain she could save Ed from the same sort of fate, and she had been correct in that thinking.

By nightfall she was done and he was patched up, sleeping deeply but he was very much alive. Oswald had quietly thanked her for saving Ed’s life, his eyes never left Ed’s gentle sleeping face. She smiled at the image of them before leaving the room to allow them time for themselves. Oswald spent a majority of the night sitting beside Ed’s bed, he held onto his hand tracing patterns across the back of his hand. He promised himself that when he woke up and got better that they would be stronger and work through their issues in a wiser manner.


End file.
